I am really trying to push texturing and lighting the time around. Right now I am showing the textures of the first building that I created. Lighting is planned out on paper but wont be reflected here until near the end.

Thanks

_________________Truth is the essence of life, if that truth flows freely from you then why do so many choose to ignore it? --me

Nice work. I realize that this is very preliminary, but for a scene like this, atmosphere is crucial. I'd strongly recommend either a storm drain or a building vent that spews some sort of visible vapor that obscures part of the distance, and through which light penetrates to varying degrees. A dumpster and liberal amounts of garbage (newspapers, fliers, broken bottles etc) should also be accumulated in occluded areas.

Also, if you don't feel it would be overly complex, the hint of recent precipitation is also fairly awesome for alley scenes, ie puddles, dripping water and a reflective sheen upon which the hint of off camera neon lighting that is complimentary to the overriding color scheme can be reflected (strategically with respect to the overall image comp).

There should also be wires, pipes or some sort of hanging element that connects both sides, but also that isn't overly obtrusive, I'd say.

Other suggestions would be scaffolding, pylons or other very worn indicators of construction that has been half finished and long since abandoned, as well as perhaps a junker of a car with a clearly visible accumulation of parking tickets, or maybe a boot on one of it's wheels.

All of this is rather effort intensive and you're free to pick and choose from amongst these suggestions of course. I look forward to seeing how you finish it.

Great crits falldamage. I think I might actually make the lighting more of 4-5 pm so I can turn on those alley lights. But that quick paint over looks more like the direction I was trying to take when I set up the original lights, you just made it look better as usual =D.

You can do more compositionally with the shadow from the building on the left. It runs with the water at the moment, which is visually confusing (Fall's suggestions help) and compositionally a bit boring (dark on the left, light on the right), but if you played with the shape of the left-side building you could have the shadow length be more varied and be part of the composition._________________Art Links Archive -- Artists and Tutorials

I would suggest you to use sRGB to linear converter to textures, and then add a linear to sRGB filter to camera. That way textures will light more naturally, and doesn't look so gray.
Here's a comparison of linear and sRGB color spaces

I would also add some atmosphere between the closest buildings and the furthest buildings.
I don't know how finished you are with those buildings, but I would add some more geometry to them to make them look more natural. Just a simple bevels to the edges will do miracles.

Petri's note about the greyness of your scene is a good one. A "dusk" setting might be what you're going for, but it's not necessarily the best result you can get.

If this is going to be an image, rather than an animation, then you need to find the camera placement and composition that gives you an artistic result. At the moment it looks too much like an in-editor map from a second-tier video game. It's adding that artistic touch that will make it first-tier, but it's a tough thing to do.

Bringing back some of the color and contrast will help. Look at how light is used in Henrick's image here:

Petri.J- Hey man, good valid point and I see the results, the only thing is how do I achieve the sRGB in 3dsmax 8? I have been looking and can't find where that setting is on the textures. I did some research online and found that I would have to use a different rendering engine such as Nuke or combustion to obtain those results which is not allowed for this class assignment. Any ideas?

Sumaleth- I see what your saying man, I have been trying real hard to get the lighting and colors how I want but I have been running into road blocks such as how to create a neon sign and such, it will have to be an animation of a camera just simply floating down the alley but the rest will be screen shots. I have emailed my teacher and have been researching online as well as reading through my Max bible. Hopefully I can get the results you were looking for...hitting crunch time on this right now, have this and 3 other assignments due for finals next week, no sleep! =D_________________Truth is the essence of life, if that truth flows freely from you then why do so many choose to ignore it? --me

Neon probably isn't right for that alley - it looks more like a back alley than a shopping strip - but I just meant to use those images as an example of how that sort of scene could be made artistic.

You probably won't have time to really nail it for this particular assignment, but it's a good puzzle to work on. Making objects in 3D is easy, it's making the render look like a piece of art that is the real challenge, and the earlier you start on trying to figure out how to work composition (of shapes, values, objects, and colors) the better you'll be coming out the other side of the course._________________Art Links Archive -- Artists and Tutorials

Sumaleth - Yea I was thinking neon wasn't the right way either but I thought that maybe thats part of what you wanted and I like to at least follow peoples crits and post it. Thanks for the feedback my friend.

More updates, one night and one dusk scene.

_________________Truth is the essence of life, if that truth flows freely from you then why do so many choose to ignore it? --me

Hey thanks Tzan, yea I figured it would look better for scale purposes at eye level...glad it worked heheh._________________Truth is the essence of life, if that truth flows freely from you then why do so many choose to ignore it? --me